"Once we transitioned folks into Juro, they were able to self-serve on contracts instead"

Colorado State University Global (CSU Global) is the first independent, fully accredited 100 per cent online state university in the United States. CSU Global serves over 15,000 students annually providing modern learners with the opportunity to earn degrees and certificates affordably and prepare themselves for tomorrow’s jobs.

Operating at this scale means the team at CSU Global manage contracts with a significant number of vendors. Creating, negotiating, signing and renewing those agreements requires a sophisticated approach, so the team can handle contracts efficiently and stay compliant.

The challenge: a painful and fragmented contract process

Before implementing Juro, CSU Global relied on a third party eSignature solution to sign contracts and other shared sites for vendor contract data and storage.

The fragmented approach to contract storage meant that CSU Global needed more streamlined visibility and a better process to maintain control over renewals and renegotiate terms.

Working across several systems was challenging, as CSU Global’s Director of Regulatory Compliance and Risk, Lydia Kloiber, explains: 

“We felt that the institution was at risk of missing out on opportunities to negotiate more favorable terms and reassess whether the contract was worth renewing,” Lydia says. “We needed more effective tools in place needed to support the institution in this regard.”

The potential financial impact of this can’t be overstated, particularly in the post-secondary education sector. “As a public institution of higher education, we need to be strategic about our contracting decisions.” 

Lydia and her supervisor, Jim Smith (VP of Strategy and Risk Management Operations), needed to find a better way. 

“Within a few months of joining CSU Global, our team realised the existing process was untenable. We needed a better system to effectively support the institutional leadership,” says Lydia. 

The requirements: what did CSU Global need?

Lydia was tasked with finding a new robust contract management solution as part of her onboarding plan. The university required: 

• A single source of truth for contracts, reducing the time Lydia and her team spend searching for documents, and the risks associated with misplaced agreements.
  
  
• A platform multiple teams could adopt, enabling others in the organization to self-serve on contract signing, negotiation, and management.
  
  
• Increased visibility into contracts and their data, empowering the teams at CSU Global to proactively renegotiate or terminate agreements where appropriate.
  
  
• A secure way to get contracts, cutting the unnecessary cost of a separate eSigning solution and driving consistency across the organization. 

The solution: a unified, data-rich contract repository

In 2022, CSU Global replaced its fragmented tech stack with Juro’s intelligent contract platform.

After deciding to proceed with Juro, Lydia and her team were set up and receiving value quickly. “The onboarding process was nothing short of stellar,” Lydia says. “Juro’s implementation team reached out quickly, were patient, and clearly knew what they were talking about. They were wonderful.”

“The Juro team has spent a lot of time making sure we’re happy with the service we receive, even beyond implementation. In all my years working in higher education and with vendors, there are few that do as much as the Juro customer support team do to consistently engage with us. It’s quite impressive.”

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Today, most of CSU Global’s contracts are signed and stored in Juro, with better visibility into the data within them for all departments. 

“Finding a contract is simple. I can type the vendor’s name and instantly access the associated information in Juro,” explains Lydia. “I can also pull a report using the smart fields in a contract to surface the contracts approaching renewals, which wasn’t possible before.” This functionality enables Lydia to control and prepare for upcoming contract milestones.

The wider business also works independently on contract-related tasks through Juro. As Lydia explains: 

“Previously, I was doing the bulk of the contract work for the business. But once we transitioned folks into Juro, they were able to self-serve instead. Almost every department at CSU Global now uses Juro to manage their contracts. Rather than picking up that work, I now act as the subject matter expert when colleagues have questions or need a contract reviewed. That has business-wide benefits.”

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The results: contract data surfaced 75 per cent faster

Using Juro has enabled Lydia and Jim to improve control over the organization’s contracts.

“Juro helps us keep costs down at a time when every penny counts. We’ve cut the cost of a separate eSigning tool, and we can negotiate better terms from our vendor agreements now,” explains Lydia. 

Juro has also transformed the way the university stores third-party contracts, making it possible to retrieve the relevant contract and information from these 75 per cent faster. 

“Work that previously took an hour per contract now takes 15 minutes, so I have won a lot of my time back,” Lydia explains. “I don’t need to depend on anyone else to surface this information. I can access it instantly in Juro.”

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Juro was built for legal and business teams, which allows other departments to manage their own contracts and frees Lydia and Jim to focus on more strategic compliance initiatives.

“I could go a whole week without opening Juro, because I can trust that people know how to find and manage their own contracts through the platform. Now we can focus on more strategic work,” Lydia explains. 

“I would definitely recommend Juro to institutions that are struggling to find contracts, understand who interacts with them, track upcoming renewals, and retain control over their agreements. If institutions like ours are struggling with the same things we were, I would absolutely recommend Juro as a platform.”